Coming Home
by svanglishninja
Summary: Set after the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming. It's been a month since Peter put the Vulture behind bars, but it seems trouble keeps finding him. Now he has to deal with an escaped convict, an overgrown lizard, and possibly a new love interest.
1. Chapter 0

**AN: Allrighty, I know next to nothing about storytelling, but I decided to give it a shot. It might be stupid, it might be utter dog-shit, but if it is, be sure to let me know. I do strive to get better after all.**

 **This takes place right after the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Spider-Man, I'm pretty sure Marvel and Sony are fighting for custody over their child. The only thing I own is this fanfiction. **

**INTRODUCTION**

"Look who it is…"

Adrian Toomes was mildly surprised when he heard the voice of his old… colleague. If you could call him that. He never expected to reunite with anyone he worked with before he got caught. He stayed silent as Mac Gargan strolled over to him, a creepy smile pasted on his face.

"What are the odds you and I end up at the same summer camp?" Gargan continued, giving a light but sinister chuckle. Adrian was in no mood to play games with Gargan. He wasn't sure how well he would do if Gargan had some left over ill-feelings towards him. He might have been the boss outside of the joint, but in here, he doubted he could hold his own for a long time against someone like Mac Gargan, especially if he had gotten a hold of a weapon of some kind.

Adrian might have seemed calm to any bystander, but Mac Gargan easily noticed the distress hiding behind that poker face of his. He didn't mind the distrust, not one bit, it was quite amusing in fact, however his purpose wasn't to make any unnecessary enemies. He simply wanted some… information.

"Relax!" Mac Gargan drew out the word in a way that might have seemed mocking to any onlookers, but Adrian showed no outer annoyance. On the inside however he was fuming. He never liked Mac Gargan. He consistently disobeyed orders, which made him dangerous, not only to his enemies but to his allies as well.

"This, it's not on you. It's on our little… spider friend." He kept on going, with that same creepy smile, and a low voice, barely louder than a whisper. Adrian was a tiny bit confused. If he honestly didn't harbor any ill will towards him, what was the purpose of him getting approached? He doubted that he wanted to start some form of alliance with him, as neither Toomes nor Mac Gargan liked working for others. He didn't have any time to consider the matter, as Mac Gargan kept speaking.

"I got some boys on the outside who would love to meet him." He said, drawing out the 'love' yet again. "You know, take a picture, slice his throat, put his head in the trash. And I heard a rumor… you know who he is."

That last part was barely audible, a whisper so low Adrian himself barely heard it. So that's what he wanted. Adrian was honestly perplexed at the moment. First of all, he doubted someone made that rumor up on a whim, which means someone found out that he learned his true identity. Second of all, he didn't really know how to respond. On one hand, it was Peter who had ruined his plans, torn him from his family, and locked him up in this rotten shithole, and he wouldn't mind peeling the flesh off of his bones if he got the chance. On the other hand, he HAD saved his life, even after Adrian had done everything in his power to end his, which was a trivial feat compared to the fact that he had also saved his daughters life in Washington. He was torn. He was furious with Peter, but also owed him a great deal.

But ultimately, there was only one option for him.

"If I knew who he was, he'd already be dead." He calmly responded, with his poker face not giving away a single hint. Mac Gargan kept smiling, but behind the façade he had a feeling that Toomes just might be lying.

They kept staring at each other for a few seconds, before a guard saved them from the awkward but tense situation. "Toomes, your family is here." He called from across the hallway. Adrian tore himself away from Mac Gargan, a faint smile still lingering on his face. If the little spiderling was going to die,

It would be Adrian Toomes that dealt the killing blow.


	2. Chapter 1

Queens. A big city located in New York, right next to Brooklyn. It is the most beautiful place that exists on planet earth. Probably. Maybe. Maybe not. But don't be picky with details, because Queens is where this story will take place. Right here, in one of their beautiful, tiny, kind of smelly alleys.

"Drop your wallet and phone. NOW!" A young man shouted at the innocent old man, who was trembling furiously while reaching for his pockets, trying to find his belongings. He didn't want to invoke the anger in the young lad in front of him, but it was hard to grasp his wallet with his weak, trembling hands.

"Hurry the FUCK UP!" The robber shouted, a hood pulled over his head shadowing his face, cocking the gun and shoving it up the old man's face, making him squeal in fright.

"You do realize it's like nine o'clock in the middle of the day, right? You pretty much chose the worst timing to rob anyone." The two men in the alley threw their heads up towards the voice and saw every thief's worst fear: A red and blue man that seemed to stick to the wall above them. "What are you in such a hurry for anyways? Late for work?"

The robber hurriedly pointed his gun towards the newcomer and fired off three bullets while shouting "Fuck you, spandex man!"

'Spandex-Man' gracefully flipped over him, avoiding all the bullets in the process. "Dude, it's not spandex. Why does everyone think it's spandex?" The robber just turned around with the goal to put down the pest, but the stranger was quicker.

"Ah ah ah, didn't you see the signs? This is a no-guns zone." He said, while firing a web-like substance from his wrists, and tearing the gun out of the man's grip with a tug. The man cursed and dashed towards the exit of the alley, tearing down a garbage bin to prevent anyone from following him.

"Hey, wait for me!" The annoying pest shouted and flung himself over the man with the help of a super-powered jump. He landed in front of the young man, who without the hood looked like he was in his early twenties. The robber tried to stop his sprint, but tripped on his own feet and kissed the ground hard. The man in spandex was a bit confused, but rolled along with it anyways.

"If you're just gonna knock yourself out, could you notify me beforehand? It could have saved me a lot of time." He said and sighed tiredly. He webbed the robber and hung him from a fire escape nearby. "Hang out here until the boys in blue come and pick you up, will ya?" He told the unconscious guy, before turning to the old victim.

"Uh… are you okay?" He asked, a little bit awkwardly. He wasn't very good at talking with others, usually he just swung away before there was any time for conversation, but this old fella seemed a bit shaken up, and was still shaking.

"Yes, I'm fine young man. Thank you very much. Are you that spider guy I've heard about on the radio?" He asked wondrously, and seemed to calm down a bit.

"Yeah," The man answered. "I'm Spider-Man"

* * *

"… Which gave him just enough time to…" An old history teacher was pandering on about Franklin D. Roosevelt before the door opening rudely cut him off. He was not, however, surprised by the boy standing in the door frame.

"Peter Parker. I see you've finally decided to turn up. I sure hope you had a fabulous time this morning, when you should have been right. Here." He said, with a stern look and gritted teeth at the last part. A couple of students giggled behind him, but he didn't really care.

"I- I'm so sorry Mr. Hendrickson, I was just- you know, eh…" Peter Parker was fumbling with his words, trying to come up with a fitting excuse for being absent again. He couldn't really say that he was busy beating up crooks on his way to school, for quite a few reasons. He could hear the giggles get louder in the classroom, while some people almost out right laughed at him. He started to blush out of embarrassment.

"I was just helping out, eh, helping some old man over the streets." He said and put on the biggest smile he could for his teacher. Mr. Hendrickson simply raised an eyebrow.

"And this task took you… 47 minutes?" He countered after glancing at the clock. The time read 9:17.

"Well, he had very weak knees. And it was quite a big road." Peter simply stated, with the same stupid smile. Mr. Hendrickson sighed dejectedly.

"Just go sit down for now, I'll have a word with your homeroom teacher about this later." He hissed at Peter, making him want to crawl into his hoodie. Peter made his way down the room, barely avoiding tripping over everyone's feet, as well as his own. As he made his way towards the back, where he usually was seated, he could hear his classmates whisper about him behind his back. He made out some words like 'loser', and 'nerd', and even 'slacker', which almost made him laugh, considering he had the highest GPA in the entire school, including the seniors. But in a way, they were kind of right. He was missing more and more school lately, but it was hardly because he was a slacker. It was probably because he went out each night fighting crime until morning came, giving him briefly two hours of sleep most days. Today he hadn't even overslept, but he had come across TWO assaults in different alleys on his way to school, and it takes him a while to switch into the spider suit if he doesn't have it ready underneath his clothes.

He started fuming just thinking of the morning. Who the hell attacks someone in the morning? He had a hard time finding crime at night, but when he's in a hurry the assholes decide that it's time to make his day worse.

As he sits down in his seat, it barely takes 5 seconds before he can hear someone whispering in his ear.

"Hey."

Peter tried to ignore it, which was foolish, since the assailant didn't know when to shut up or give up.

"Hey. Hey Peter. Why were you late? Overslept? Or maybe you met another supervillain? Did you? Did you?" Ned Leeds continued in his ear. Eventually Peter gave up and answered him, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"No, Ned. I just helped someone out. No big deal."

But of course, Ned wouldn't end it there. "So you were crime fighting? That is soo awesome. Hey, did you use that catchphrase I told you to use?"

Peter sighed once again, but at this point he had already given up. "No, because it was retarded. Would you use that if you were a super hero?" He shot back at him.

"Hell yeah, I would!" Ned exclaimed, maybe a little bit too loud, considering a few heads turned to throw them annoying looks. "'You're about to get WEBBED, criminal!'"

"No, that's terrible in every way and form." Peter argued.

"All right then. How about this: 'It's CLOBBERING TIME!'" Ned announced, a bit on the loud side again, which earned him an evil look from Hendrickson.

"That's just plagiarism." Peter groaned, before tuning out Ned's stupid catchphrases to think about other things. Which didn't mean Liz. Nope. He was definitely not thinking about Liz Allen's pretty face, or about what she said to him in school before she transferred out last month.

He sighed, unable to get her out of his head, and suddenly everyone stood up and walked out the classroom. Apparently, he had zoned out for thirty minutes without noticing it. He hurriedly gathered his stuff and jogged out of the classroom, not really looking where he was going. Unfortunately, being Peter Parker, that obviously meant that he had to run straight into someone on his way out.

"Whoa, watch it Pete. We don't want you to run into a wall one of these days, would we? Keep your head up." He joked.

"Oh, I'm very sorry Doctor Connors!" He quickly threw out before hurrying after Ned.

 **Not going to jump into any heavy plot yet, since it's still the first chapter, but keep in mind that Michelle is probably going to be featured heavily in this story. Since she barely had any role in Homecoming, I can do pretty much whatever I want with her, which makes it a whole lot easier. I will try to keep her personality as similar as possible to Homecoming, but I'm not sure how well that's going to go. Feel free to review, all and any types are welcome!**


	3. Chapter 2

**I'm back, and ready to disappoint with my terrible plot, terrible action and absolutely horrible romance. So buckle up!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own shit ;( except this fiction**

* * *

"Honey, I'm home!"

Martha felt her frown disappear as she heard the voice of her husband, Curtis Connors, calling out from the front door.

"Welcome back!" She called back with genuine joy. Curt often had to work late when he was employed at Oscorp, but ever since he started teaching science at midtown high they had gotten to spend more time together at home.

"Is everything allright?" He asked as he wandered into the living room, where his son Billy was sitting on the couch, wearing a sad face.

"Billy got into another fight at school." She said, as she gave said person a stern look, making him want to crawl back into the couch and disappear.

"Again?" Curt replied along with a tired sigh, as this had happened a few times too often lately. "We've talked about this Billy. There are better ways of solving problems than with your fists, you know?"

"It wasn't my fault!" Billy cried out pleadingly, as if he was begging his parents to believe him. "Kevin started it! It's his fault! All of it!"

Curt sat down next to him with a kind smile on his face. "Trust me Billy, I believe you. But just because Kevin says some mean things, you can't start throwing your fists around in anger. That won't solve any problems, it will only stir up anger in him, which will lead to more problems. You should ignore him, or tell your teacher about it."

Billy, who had just turned eight, looked down at the floor in shame. "But… he said that I was a freak, because my dad was a freak."

Curt felt his heart skip a beat. This wasn't the first time Billy had gotten the short end of the stick because of his father's condition, but everyone time he heard a comment like that, he couldn't help but feel sorry for his family, who was forced to live with him. He knew they didn't mind, but that didn't change the fact that it was true. He could see the glances Martha's friends gave him when they met, as well as the teachers at Billy's school. He never wanted this life for them.

"Billy. Standing up for yourself is good. Never let others push you around. But sometimes it's better to resolve the matter peacefully, by talking to them. Do you understand?" He explained calmly to his son. Billy gave him the affirmative by nodding subtly. "Good."

Curt abruptly stood up, and started heading towards the door leading to his garage.

"You're going to your lab already?" Martha wondered, slightly disappointed that he didn't want to spend more time with his family, but she knew why he did it. He had been working on restoring his arm ever since he lost it. She knew he was self-conscious about the stump that replaced a whole arm, but she still wanted to spend time with him.

"Yes. I'm so close. Cross species genetics have gotten me closer to my goal than anything has before. I simply need to make some tweaks to the formula, and soon we'll be ready for human trials!" Curt exclaimed excitedly. Martha knew that he was very passionate about science, but she couldn't help but to be worried.

"Just make sure everything is in place before you try anything on yourself. Don't rush things because you're too excited." She told him.

"Yes, yes of course, but it's only a matter of time!" He continued, barely listening to her. She had no time to say anything else, as he quickly disappeared into his lab. She couldn't hear him whisper the last part. "It has to be."

* * *

Peter stumbled up the stairs, tired after having to deal with Ned's antics for an entire school day. Not to get him wrong, Ned was his best friend, but he had his moments where Peter just couldn't keep up with his excited pandering. He sighed as he unlocked the front door and walked in. "I'm home, May."

"Welcome back! Did anything exciting happen today?" She called back, peeking out of the kitchen.

Peter remembered how he almost got caught last month, as he carelessly had to put on Mr. Starks suit when he got it back. He played it off as a costume for a party, but Aunt May kept giving him these strange looks ever since. She didn't push so far either when he came back with bruises and scratches, but he didn't really think about it that much. He was just relieved that she bought the costume party thing.

"No, not really. Y'know, it was school. Haha." He replied absentmindedly.

"Well, that's funny, because I got a call from Mister Connors today. Turns out you were late for Mister Hendrickson's class. Again." She said, walking out of the kitchen and blocking Peters way to his room. "And I know you didn't oversleep today."

"Uh, well, I was-was… something came up along the way!" He stuttered out, sweating a bit. May simply frowned and narrowed her eyes. "I helped an old guy-man! Helped an old man over the road, y'know? Nothing important!" He said, recalling what he told his teacher, giving a fake laugh. May gave him a disbelieving look, sighed and walked away.

'Whew, close one' he thought as he ran into his room. He emptied his backpack, which contained the usual. Some school books, a pencil case, and a floppy Spider suit. He quickly changed into it, covering it with his usual clothes before hiding his mask in a pocket. He walked out and was almost at the front door before May called out to him.

"Where do you think you're going young man? Dinner is in two hours." May informed him.

"Oh, uh, yeah sure, I'll be back in two hours. Im just going over to Ned's place. I'll be back in jiffy." He promised, halfway out of the door already.

"Well, keep an eye on your clo-" She began, but he was already storming down the stairs. He ran into a nearby alley, before quickly taking off his casual clothes and stuffing them down a backpack, hiding it behind a trashcan. He pulled on his mask and climbed up the wall.

He threw an eye over the city. It was relatively calm during the evening, but that never stopped him from donning the suit. It was only then that his day started for real. He jumped off, letting himself freefall for a second before he shot out a web, swinging himself forward over the streetlights. Swinging around the city was Peter's true escape from reality. He felt as free as he could as he flew above cars, rooftops and pedestrians. He hadn't gathered the courage to throw himself off a truly high building yet though. The closest he had gotten was in Washington, when he had to swing under a police chopper to smash through the glass and save his friends. He still tended to stay close to the ground though. Well, apart from the plane incident, but that hardly counted, since he was too distracted trying to keep the plane from crashing into the middle of New York at the time. As he swung over the city, lost in his thought, a high-pitched scream tore him right back to reality.

He looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound, when he saw a man running for his life down the streets, a handbag in his hands.

"Time to do my spider thing, I guess."

He quickly gave chase, catching up to the handbag snatcher in just a few seconds, before calling out to him.

"Hey buddy! No running in the hallways, someone could get hurt!" He exclaimed, before stopping him with a web to the back, and hanging him up in a lamppost. He picked up the bag, before turning around, shouting out, "Hey, did anybody lose a handbag? Yoohoo?"

A young woman ran up to him waving, so he tossed her the bag and jumped away before he had to engage in an awkward conversation. He wrote a little note and put it on the web currently holding the bag-snatcher, who was twisting and turning in every way to get free. The note simply read 'Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man!'

"Now try to hang tight, pal. You comfortable? Need popcorn?" He lightly teased, before jumping and swinging away. "Give me a call if you need anything!" He called back one last time.

* * *

Curt Connors couldn't believe his eyes. In front of his eyes, his lab-rat, whom he had injected with the lizard DNA a few hours ago, had grown back his entire missing leg. This was revolutionary! He had done it! He was past animal testing, he simply needed to find a safe way to try this on… a person. Which, quite frankly, was the hard part.

If he was still employed at Oscorp it wouldn't have been a problem. They always got their hands on willing test subjects somehow. He never questioned it, but it was fairly suspicious. Now, however, as a normal science teacher and private scientist in his basement, it wasn't as easy to get ahold of any human trials. Which only meant one thing: he'd have to try it on himself. He remembered what had happened to Billy earlier, but quickly pushed the thought back. Martha was right, he wouldn't help anyone by rushing into human trials and killing himself before he perfected the formula. But…

Curt thought about it long and hard. In his eyes, everything seemed fine. It should theoretically work on humans as well as it did on the rat, despite their genetic differences. In science, you needed to take a few risks to get results.

Eventually he pushed the idea back. It wasn't worth it. Not yet, in the very least. He left the lab, still deep in thought, not having the ability to forget about it completely, until Martha called out to him.

"Curt? Some old friends will be coming over for dinner tomorrow, you don't know them. Does that work?"

Snapping back to reality, he smiled, shouting back. "Of course, as long as they leave some food for me!" He chuckled lightly at his own joke, before going to check on his son.

* * *

"What's up loser?" Peter looked up towards the source of the voice, to find Michelle Jones standing above him in the library.

"Oh, uh, you know, reading. History." He answered, a little bit startled. Michelle called out to him and Ned now and then, but he had never actually spoken to her one on one.

"Reading? You really are a loser." She scoffed, before she sat down across of him, pulled out a book of her own and started reading.

"But- But you're- you're also reading. I mean, it's a library, y'know?" He replied to her, a little bit confused.

She looked up from her book, and gave him a look like he was crazy. "Yeah? And?"

Being a tiny bit confused about her actions, he didn't really know what to respond so he just went back to his own book. They sat there in silence for about 10 minutes. Peter wasn't sure about Michelle, but he was feeling pretty awkward at the moment. He looked up for 50th time, before noticing what she was reading.

"Whoa, is that 'The Fellowship of the Ring'? I didn't know you were into fantasy." He exclaimed, trying to end the uncomfortable silence.

She looked up, giving him a 'Duh' face, before replying.

"I'm not. I saw you reading it last week so I got interested."

That startled Peter, as he thought back. He'd read all of Tolkiens books a long time ago, and he couldn't recall ever bringing it to school. Suddenly he remembered. He'd snuck it into detention because he was bored out of his mind. But that was only once, and he'd tried to read it as subtly under the desk as he could.

"How, uh, how did you notice that?" He wondered aloud.

She paused for a brief moment, before giving the excuse she always gave. "I'm just very observant."

Peter simply nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed. 'Of course, she's just observant, what stupid question Peter. Just like always.' he mentally berated himself before looking up again, searching for a reason to keep talking. He really didn't know a lot about Michelle, she was like a mystery. She always sat alone at lunch, the only times she spoke was when she called out to him and Ned, but Ned was always ready to deflect whatever she said with a counter, which swiftly ended the brief conversation. He was honestly curious about her, she seemed cool, but it was hard to tell. He noticed she was about halfway through the book, which gave him the opportunity to keep talking.

"So, what do you think?" He asked. She met his eyes, looking a bit confused. "About the book, I mean." He quickly added.

"Oh. I don't really know, I'm not 100% sure yet." She said, before pausing. After a while she looked up. "What about you?" She asked.

"Oh, I love it! It's truly the ultimate adventure, the character development during the trilogy is unbeatable, I LOVE all the characters, Gimli is fucking awesome and he is so right, that Oliphant only counted as one, and I'm ranting. Sorry." He quickly stopped himself mid rant. She just asked a simple question, of course he had to act like a complete geek. Way to ruin the first image. But she obviously knew that already, considering how observant she was about everyone.

Michelle paused, before simply stating, "Yeah, I like it too."

They locked eyes for a couple of seconds.

"But I don't have any idea what you're talking about though. I haven't read that much."

Peter simply laughed, obviously embarrassed. "Yeah sorry."

After 20 more minutes of silent, although not as uncomfortable this time, Michelle suddenly rose up from the seat. She packed the book down into her bag, before walking away without a word.

Without thinking, Peter called out to her. "Hey!"

She turned around, still not saying anything. Peter quickly got flustered, he didn't know why he called out to her. He just acted on impulse, he didn't even really have anything to say, he just wanted to say… something. After many awkward seconds he finally continued.

"Can I… you know… just, eh, like- like call you… MJ?" He asked, hope in his voice. He really wanted to become friends with Michelle, but he remembered her saying that her friends called her MJ. So it was like indirectly asking her to be his friend, which worked great for him, he hated be direct.

After staying silent for 5 more painful seconds she simply turned around and walked out of the library. Peter sighed dejectedly, of course she wouldn't wanna get to know him, they just conversed a bit in the library, he was an idiot for even asking, before he heard Michelle call out from the doorway: "Sure!"

Peter didn't notice the faint smile on Mich- no, MJ's face as she left the library way happier than she had ever been that month.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ned had nearly died of a heart attack at home as he watched the news, because the first thing he saw was that Adrian Toomes had escaped.

* * *

 **Well, that's that I guess. Feel free to review, I'd love to know what you thought. I don't have the highest expectations though, as I have no idea how to write a basic conversation. Next time, probably some juicy lizard stuff, and maybe birdman makes an appearance. Who knows.**


	4. Chapter 3

**I changed the ending to this chapter if anyone is re-reading it for whatever reason. Otherwise, ignore this.**

 **Disclaimer: This disclaimer is probably useless.**

* * *

"Everyone get the _FUCK DOWN_!" A man shouted at the top of his lungs, as he and his four buddies waved their guns around like they were sparklers in christmas. One of the five masked men was shouting at the poor bank-cashier, telling her to open the vault. She was terrified. How would she know the code to the bank vault? She was just a normal worker, working her 8 hour shift. As the man raised his gun and threatened her once again, they were interrupted by a voice coming from the ceiling.

"Ahem!" He cleared his throat. "You know, there are simpler ways of cutting a long line than deciding to, y'know, shoot up the entire place." The five perpetrators quickly turned around, panicking. "If this is about a rough childhood, I would love to hear you stor-" Spider-Man continued, before he was rudely interrupted by the five men opening fire blindly in his direction. He jumped away, with the help of a web-tug, and landed behind a pillar, where the men continued to fire away.

"Okay, counseling time with Doctor Spidey is over!" He cried out from behind his cover, "Why don't we ease the mood with some _jokes?_ "

He flipped away from the pillars before firing his webs towards them, hitting one of the perp's shotgun, and flinging it into another one's head, knocking him out cold.

"Have you ever heard of the burglar that stole a bar of soap?" He asked loudly, as he went back to dodging a rain of bullets coming his way, before he hid behind a counter. "I heard he made a clean getaway!" He continued, before he jumped towards them, kicking the nearest robber in his mask-covered face, before springing off of him right onto the roof, where he quickly climbed away before they had any chance to react. With two of them down, the other three started getting a _tiny bit_ terrified, forcing them to group up in a little bundle, looking three ways at the same time.

They kept sweeping the roof with their eyes, hoping to find the wall-crawler up there, until they heard a voice right behind all of them. "Not even a giggle? Tough crowd." Before they could react, Peter had already grabbed one of them and flung him straight into the wall. As the others turned around to shoot him, Peter simply grabbed their guns and twisted the barrels ninety degrees, making them useless.

"Let me guess: made in china?" He joked before kicking the fourth one away, giving the last perp enough time to make a dash for the exit. "Hey, you gonna leave your friends here with me?" Peter called out to him.

When he didn't get a respond he simply sighed and fired a web, stopping him in his track. "That's a dick move, bro. At least TRY to help them."

As he webbed up the 5 perps to the wall, the civilians cheered around him. He checked his time, and realized he was late for dinner already.

"Shit." He whispered. He started to dash towards the door before the only conscious robber stopped him in his tracks.

"Do you have any idea who we work for?!" He cried out. "When our employer finds out who you are, he will skin you alive, along wi-" He couldn't say more, as a patch of webbing stuck to his mouth, blocking his ability to speak.

"Yeah, to be honest, I'd rather take my chances with him than an angry aunt." He groaned, not wanting to know what his terrifying Aunt would say when he waddled in 20 minutes late.

* * *

As he left the bank, and found his backpack containing his street clothes in a nearby alley, he noticed that his phone was buzzing. He sighed, expecting his Aunts name on the screen, ready to bombard him with questions, but was happily surprised with Ned's name popping up. He pressed the green button and pressed the phone to his mask covered face.

"Hey man. What's up? Never mind, you will not _believe_ how awesome I just was, there was this bank robbery-" He quickly started spewing before Ned interrupted him.

"Peter, shut up for a second. This is serious." He said. His serious tone didn't go unnoticed by Peter who instantly sobered up a bit.

"Uh, what's happening?" He asked, a bit more worried this time.

"You remember the big flying monster guy? Adrian Tomb, or something? Liz's _dad?_ " Ned quickly asked.

"Yeah, of course, I had an epic battle with him on a _freaking plane_ if you don't remember." Peter reminded Ned.

"The news just said he escaped from prison." Ned dropped the bomb, and Peter felt his heart drop along with it.

"Wh- What? _How?_ He- He was detained in a _maximum-security prison!_ He couldn't just- just DIG is way out!" Peter exclaimed, panicking hard at the moment.

"They said someone broke him out. Blew a hole in the wall of his cell. The whole wall apparently crumbled, and 14 others made it out as well." Ned continued, worry apparent in his voice. "Didn't he like, know your secret identity? It would be messed up, but you should honestly prepare yourself for the fact that he might come after you now. Or even worse, what if he comes after your _aunt?_ Or even _worse_ worse, what if he comes after me?!" Ned was pretty much screaming at the end of his long sentence, and Peter had to move the phone a few inches off of his ear.

"Ned, don't worry. I'm not gonna let him hurt anyone. I promise." Peter reassured him.

Ned sighed on the other end. "I know you're not, and that might be the worst thing of them all. You're gonna be in the worst danger right not Pete. And not just because _Birdman 2_ is dangerous as hell, but because you're gonna put yourself in danger protecting everyone."

Peter smiled faintly. "I'll be fine. And I'll find him. And then I'll beat him up again. Easy."

"Dude, the last time I checked, he beat your _ass_ every time you met each other. Didn't you win because his backpack malfunctioned or something last time?" Ned said, laughing in the other end.

"Well, yeah, but I'm pretty sure I _made_ it malfunction… probably." Peter replied, not sounding so sure himself.

"Whatever man. Just… be careful." Ned ended the call, leaving Peter to sigh. He was lucky to have a friend like Ned, and while he may be a bit of a spaz at times, he was right this time. Adrian knew who he was, and one of the last things he said to him was that he would _kill his family._ As Peter sat there in thought, his phone buzzed again. He checked it, and was met with the most terrifying name he could think of at the moment.

"Crap." He groaned. "I forgot dinner."

* * *

Curt Connors was in his lab, holding a syringe against his shoulder, the shoulder missing an arm. The syringe contained 50 ml of a highly concentrated and modified dose of lizard DNA. Lizards had the unique ability to regrow their tails if lost. He had simply modified it so that it would be compatible to his human DNA. It had worked wonders with his lab-rat. Of course, the little bugger _had_ escaped last night, but he had shown no side effects, and the escape was simply because of Curt's clumsiness. He couldn't wait any longer. He had to do this. He thought back to the dinner he had had a few hours ago, with his wife's old friends.

 _Five hours ago_

 _Curt opened the door, coming face to face with three ladies. Most probably Martha's friends. They were talking and laughing until they saw him. For an instance they paled, and everyone's eyes moved towards the empty stump on his shoulder. He wasn't surprised, that was the usual reaction. These ladies, however, had looked not only frightened but… dare he say it… disgusted?_

 _Regardless, he smiled politely. "Welcome. Martha's been expecting you."_

 _They simply nodded and walked inside without any notion that they were going to greet him back. 'Quite impolite' he thought quietly for himself as he walked back inside to get Martha._

 _When Martha greeted them, they went right back to their cheerfulness, and Curt decided to leave them in peace. Instead, he went into the kitchen and finished up on the delicious curry pot his wife had prepared. As they all sat down to eat, they once again looked a bit taken back._

 _After a couple of seconds, they asked Martha, "Is he going to be here too? And eat with us?"_

 _Martha merely looked confused. "Well, obviously. He's my husband after all." She said, with a mild frown on her face._

 _The ladies looked quite uncomfortable, before finally speaking up once again._

" _It's just that…" One of them started. "It's hard to have an appetite with… him around." Another finished, throwing Curt an annoyed look._

 _Martha was fuming. She stood up abruptly._

" _Now you listen-" But Curt interrupted her with a hand on her shoulder, and a shake of his head._

 _He turned to the ladies, and with the fakest of smiles he could manage, he stated, "Of course I can eat somewhere else. Have fun." Before he swiftly made his way to his lab, bringing his food._

 _He could hear Martha call out for him behind him, but he didn't care. That had been the last straw. He needed to do something. He needed to… change._

Present time

Which had led up to these events. Martha had tried to talk to him shortly after. He thought he heard her chase her friends away, but he was too distracted to really care. He had locked his door and tuned out all noise. After a while Martha had given up and made her way to bed, but Curt was wide awake. He shoved the syringe into his arm, or at least what was left of it, and inserted the DNA. He waited a few minutes, but felt no change. He wasn't discouraged though. It had taken the rat a couple of hours to fully regrow it's limb, and he assumed his arm was a bit bigger, and would take more time, assuming it _did_ work. He went to the bedroom, where Martha was already asleep. He took his place to her, whispering in her ear.

"Things are going to change now. I promise." Before he gave the back of her head a swift kiss and closed his eyes. All he could do now… was hope.

* * *

Peter walked into his science classroom in time for once. He took his seat next to Ned again, who immediately started to pander him with questions about his patrol at night. Peter smiled, happy that he had seemed to forgotten about the whole 'crazy winged murderer coming for him and his family'.

Suddenly Ned stopped talking and stared towards the front of the class, mouth hanging open a bit. Not only him, but everyone had grown silent. Completely silent, which was unusual. Peter looked forward, only to be confused. It was just Doctor Connors, in his full one-armed glory-

Peter stopped himself mid-though. Two. There were two arms there. Not a prosthetic arm, but a full-fledged human arm was attached to the spot that had been nothing more than a short stump for as long as he'd known him.

Suddenly someone spoke up.

"Mister Connors, is that a prosthetic arm?" They asked.

Curt smiled, before answering the student, "No, this is a real human arm, and no, I didn't steal anyone's arm." He chuckled slightly at his own joke, but deep within he was overfilled with joy. It had worked. Martha had literally cried when she woke up to find his missing arm… well, not missing.

"But how?!" Someone cried out, asking what was on every student's mind.

Curt chuckled slightly once more. "I'll tell you all… at the _end_ of the semester. If your grades are good enough of course." He answered, making all the students groan, as some even cried out 'unfair!'. "Now sit down, I still have a class to teach, with or without two arms."

Everyone was unusually quiet and focused during Curt's class, but he wasn't sure if they were focused on the _lesson_ or on his new-found arm. He didn't really care either, to be honest.

After class Peter stayed behind, ushering Ned away, saying he needed to ask something. Curt didn't notice him, so after a while Peter spoke up.

"Uhm, Docto- I mean, Mister Connors?" Peter said, a bit too loud maybe, trying to catch his teacher's attention.

Curt jumped a little and turned around hastily.

"Oh, Peter. If you're going to ask about my arm, I suggest you listen in class because I told everyone-" Curt started, but Peter cut him off.

"I know! I know, I just- I just wanted to ask you, if- if it was, y'know… Cross species genetics." He asked quickly, smiling slightly.

Curt seemed baffled, wondering how the boy knew it, but suddenly realized who he was talking to. Peter was as smart as his father had been. He sighed dejectedly.

"Yes, but how did you-" Curt tried to ask him how he found out, but Peter interrupted him once more.

"Well, I, Uh, I- I read your books, about cross species genetics, and how it could, save lives… and stuff… so I just figured, since you mentioned re-growing limbs with lizard's DNA in it, and stuff… that that's what you did?" Peter asked, sounding a bit unsure.

"You read my books?" Curt asked wondrously. They were meant to be for geniuses, for scientists working with the subject themselves, not for school kids, not even for college kids in fact.

"Well… Yeah. Heh." Peter said, chuckling a bit.

"Did you understand them?" Curt asked.

"Of course! I mean, probably, I- I hope so." Peter said, going from sounding confident to sounding like a preschooler that gave the wrong answer to a question.

"Well, you are in fact right Peter. I injected a modified version of the Lizards DNA, giving myself the ability to regrow limbs. At least temporarily, but hopefully I won't need it again for a while." He joked, chuckling at his own joke again.

Peter heard Ned call out to him from the hallway. "Well, uh, I have to go, but thanks Doctor. I mean- Mister. Mister Connors. Bye." He said, dashing after Ned, leaving the teacher alone.

Curt started to gather up all of the materials he had used during class, as he needed them again for his next one, when a sharp pain suddenly ran through his right arm. He gasped out, and quickly drew up his lab coats arm. He saw nothing wrong with the arm, and the pain had left as abruptly as it had hit him. 'Probably nothing serious.' He thought to himself. However, no more than 10 seconds later the same jolt of pain ran through his arm. Trying to stifle the scream that was creeping up his throat, he drew up his lab coat's arm once again, but what he saw this time made his heart nearly leap out of his chest. He stared at his arm, terrified, as it started to mutate right in front of him. Gritting his teeth, he stumbled out of the classroom. Luckily, the school's bathroom was right across of his lab. He stumbled into it, barely making it into one of the stalls and closing the door before he collapsed. Nobody was in the bathroom with him, which meant nobody could hear the heart wrenching scream that left his throat. The students outside were too busy chattering to hear anything, and the ones who did brushed it off as being tired.

* * *

"Holy shit! Did he tell you how he did it?!" Ned asked Peter excitedly, but before he had any time to answer Ned continued.

"Hey, what did you do last night anyway? You were about to say something about 'being awesome'." Ned whispered.

Peter looked around warily, before turning back to Ned and leaning closer.

"Well, you see…"

He didn't have the time to finish whatever sentence he had in mind, as he was interrupted by an ear-deafening roar coming from where they had just left. Peter turned around, along with every other student walking down the hallway. Some screamed in fear, but soon everything was quiet. Everyone was simply staring at the source of the sound… the school's bathroom. And for a while everything stayed quiet.

Until suddenly the bathroom door flew off of its hinges, crashing right into the classroom they had just left. Some students shrieked again, and everyone backed away from the bathroom.

And suddenly a figure wandered out of the bathroom. It took the students a couple of seconds to comprehend what exactly they were witnessing, but when they did, they wasted no time screaming at the top of their lungs, and running every way possible, except towards the figure standing in the middle of them.

The figure was huge. It was at least two meters tall, and towered over every student nearby. It was terrifyingly muscular as well, making it too thick to fit into any of the doorways of the school. It was also… green. And wearing a lab coat.

For a while Peter was too shocked to do anything, before Ned pulled him back to reality.

"Is that a fucking _crocodile?!_ " He shouted at Peter, waking him up from his shock.

"I have no idea, but-" Peter was about to say something about it looking more like a giant lizard before another roar interrupted him. The lizard creature, who had been standing on its hind legs earlier, went down on all four and started charging down the hallway, smashing into the students in its way, before it disappeared out of view from Peter and Ned.

"I have to stop it." Peter said, hoping his conviction drowned out the fear in his voice.

"What?! Are you crazy?! That thing looks way worse than the bird guy! He'll eat you up in an instant!" Ned cried, but Peter had already run into an empty classroom. "Pete?" Ned called out, before he heard another roar, this time in the distance. Suddenly Peter emerged from the room, this time donning his full Spider-Man costume.

"Dude, do you wear that under your clothes every day?" Ned tried to ask Peter, but he was already sprinting down the hallway the lizard had run down.

* * *

"Okay Peter, you got this, it's just an overgrown reptile, no problem, you have this in the bag." He kept telling himself as he sprinted down the same path the lizard had taken. It wasn't hard to track him, lockers were torn down, there were holes in the walls, the floor was crumbling and worst of all, there were injured students all around. Peter had to do something, and he had to do it fast.

"Uh, Karen, can you help me out here?" He begged no one in particular. He hadn't messed with the whole 'training wheels protocol' ever since he got his suit back. Not because Mr. Stark had forbidden him or anything, but because he simply didn't need to. He had grown accustomed to beating up common thugs, and never got more than a bruise during his squabbles. Now, however, he regretted that deeply. As he turned another corner he was _this_ close to letting out a manly shriek, as he found himself face to face with the reptile.

"Ok, I'm gonna take back my earlier picture of you. You look way taller up close." He spat out before shooting a web towards the lizard, hoping the get _something_ done. "Ever considered a career in basketball?"

He didn't really expect the big guy to _catch_ the web mid-air, and fling it, along with Spider-Man, straight into the wall next to them.

As peter fell to the floor, he groaned. 'That hurt _way_ more than anything bird-guy did to me.'

"Okay, so you're more of a football character I suppose?" he continued with his antics. He wasn't entirely sure why, maybe he did it to mask his own fear, maybe he was a comedian in his past life. "You want a recommendation for our team? I think you'll fit right in with the jocks."

The lizard roared once again, throwing himself at Peter, giving him next to no time to jump away. As he did, the lizard caught his leg with its claws, tearing them up in the process.

"Argh!" Peter cried out in pain, before landing and sticking to the wall opposite of the lizard. "When was the last time you cut your nails, young man? Your lizard-mom would be ashamed if she saw you."

Peter's spider-sense flared up, as the lizard suddenly decided to _throw a locker at him!_ Peter barely avoided it, flipping over it, and landing not so gracefully. Before he could deliver anymore one-liners, his spidery-sense cried out again. This time he couldn't avoid the lizards tail, striking him right in the head and flinging him across the hallway.

Peter got no time to recover before his sense warned him again. This time he simply jumped up to the roof, hoping to avoid whatever the lizard threw. The lizard missed him with his pounce, but was quite quick on the uptake. Without even looking up, it sprung off of the floor, pounding straight into Peter, bringing him through the roof, to the second floor with him.

Peter gasped for air. This was not going well, he hadn't landed a single hit yet, but already felt like rolling over playing dead. "You might need to check out that fuzzy temperament, green-beans." He hissed out before rolling out of the dust cloud that had gathered from the smash. He looked around, without finding anyone. The good news: The students had probably all evacuated. The bad news: a certain lizard was gone. He crept along the floor a bit again, before his spider-sense cried out again. He turned around, only to be met with the grey, metallic color of a school locker. The locker smashed into Peters face, sending him flying once again.

'I didn't know I'd been downgraded to football-man.' He thought to himself, tired of being kicked around. This time, however, he didn't fly into a wall. He flew straight into the window, which obviously couldn't support the hit, and Peter found himself quite disoriented before he finally hit the ground. It took him a couple of seconds to fully comprehend where and _when_ he was. When he finally managed to pry open his eyes, he was met with the majestic sight of the bright blue sky.

He stayed down for a couple of seconds, before realizing he had quite the audience. There were students circling around the school, every single one of them had their eyes laid on Peter. Peter groaned and forced himself up, which was no easy task. His legs felt like cooked spaghetti, and he barely managed to stand. He could hear sirens approaching in the distance.

He panicked for a second. 'I can't let the police come! It will tear them apart!' He thought to himself. After a few more seconds of pumping himself up, he slowly made his way back towards the school, towards the giant lizard monster, and probably towards another ass-kicking, considering how he had done when he _wasn't_ exhausted and injured.

He finally made it to the wall, and forced himself to start scaling it, heading for the same window he had been tossed out of. When he finally made it up he almost keeled over onto the floor right there. His leg was killing him. He looked down and saw how blood was pouring out of the place the lizard had caught him earlier. He didn't have time to do anything about it though.

As he stumbled through the school in search of Lizzy, he took notice of how _quiet_ everything was. It felt like he should hear _something_ if there was a giant lizard tearing through the school. How had it appeared anyways, through the bathroom?

Suddenly he was struck with realization. _The bathrooms!_ He rushed over to the place the lizard had ominously emerged, looking for a hole in the walls or something. He did find a hole, just not exactly where he expected.

One of the stalls were completely ripped apart, a huge hole compensating for the lack of toilet within the broken mess. Peter peeked down the hole, to no avail. It was darker than his sealed up basement in there, giving him no information as to what was down there. He could guess though.

"The sewers…" Peter whispered to himself, contemplating his next move. He was about to jump down, when his cellphone interrupted him. He looked at the caller ID, and saw Ned's name.

He answered the phone.

"Dude, I'm a little bit busy right now." Peter said, trying to mask his pain with annoyance, and probably failing horribly, considering he gasped out the last part in pain.

"What's going on in there?" Ned asked, worry apparent.

"I think the lizard ran down into the sewers or something. I'm gonna go after him." Peter answered through gritted teeth. His leg was getting worse, he didn't know for how long he could chase him.

"Are you kidding?! I saw you crash out the window!" Ned exclaimed. "I honestly thought you were _dead_ for a while!"

Ned sighed. "Listen," He continued. "I get that you want to be a hero and stuff, but the cops are here, and there are some ambulances rolling in. You looked hurt, and if the crocodile left you've done your part. At least get some rest."

Peter sighed dejectedly. He knew Ned was right. There was nothing he could do in his condition, except heal up and get ready for their next encounter.

"You're right. I'll- I'll just go home. Thanks buddy." Peter gave in, as he hung up and made his way out of the school. He went towards the backdoor to avoid any classmates or police officers. He knew they probably just wanted to help, but he couldn't deal with confrontation or a questioning right now. He grabbed his backpack from the room he changed in, and made his way out, avoiding anyone that could call out to him.

As he changed in an alley nearby he saw how terrible he actually looked. His leg looked like it had ben mauled by a bear, his torso and arms were covered in bruises and scratches way worse than anything he had gotten from Adrian. He couldn't see his face, but he could only assume it looked similar. Suddenly his phone dinged, notifying him that he got a message.

It was from Ned. 'Michelle is asking about you. She didn't see you leave the school. What do I say?' Peter smiled and typed in a quick response, telling him to say that he got out first and went home. Peter's smiled quickly disappeared when he realized what would happen when he came home. His Aunt was gonna kill him.

 **I definitely didn't rip off the entire TASM fight, nope, I have no idea what you're talking about. Changed the ending, since the one I wrote 2 AM yesterday was pretty shit. Next chapter will be filled with terrible cheesy angst and worry over Peter though, so don't worry about it. Feel free to leave a review, I appreciate all types of criticism! Peace.**


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